Allahabad HC Asks UP Govt. Why Medicines, Meals Not being Provided to Patients in Home Isolation

Lucknow, May 18: The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday asked the Uttar Pradesh government why it was not providing medicine and meals to COVID-19 patients in home-isolation as it was doing during the first wave of the pandemic.

The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court further sought a response from the state government on paramedical staff not being provided lodging facilities after duty hours as they risk infecting their own family members if they return home after taking care of COVID-19 patients.

It also asked the state counsel to obtain instructions from the government on the shortages of vaccines for the 18-44 age group.

A bench of justices Rajan Roy and Saurabh Lavania passed the order on a PIL moved by lawyer H.P. Gupta.

Hearing the petition through video conferencing, the bench directed the additional chief standing counsel H.P. Srivastava to seek detailed instructions on the issues.

Earlier, the court kept open the question of maintainability of the PIL at the Lucknow bench because the Allahabad HC has already been hearing issues related to COVID-19 in the state on suo-motu basis.

“While we are conscious of the fact that similar issues have taken the attention of this Court at Allahabad in a PIL, there are certain contentions which need to be taken note of, therefore, keeping the question open as to whether this petition should be entertained and proceeded with or the petitioner should be asked to intervene in the proceedings pending at Allahabad, we take note of contentions raised by the counsel for the petitioner Dr V.K. Singh, here,” the bench said.

The bench further asked the counsel for the high court administration Gaurav Mehrotra to obtain instructions as to whether there is feasibility of establishing a makeshift COVID-19 hospital on the new campus of the HC at Gomti Nagar for lawyers, judicial staff, employees and their family members.